Have you checked that the new reel of wire does not have any rust on it ?

Les.

first things first, take a photo of your wire feed to include reel through roller and post it for apraisal. Sounds like something is out of alignment. Its normal for the wire to get tight around the swan neck. The charge is applied either at the roller driver or as it enters the torch 'hose'. You might have an oversize wire – have you measured it? Have you checked the feed roller is correct / matched to wire diameter? How easily does it run with the tip removed? Get back to me? where do you reside?

You can try a teflon liner, you're right,normally used with aluminium wire.

The welding current is introduced at the tip, not through the liner.

In the past we have changed to a smaller wire spool, say 1 or 2 kgs, Don't know why it helps, but it seems to.

It also prevents 10Kgs or so of wire going rusty when the welder sits for a while.

Also have a very close look at the drive rollers, but the liner sounds like the issue.

Might not be helpful but my old 130 Cebora started jamming the other day and found the 5kg roll of wire was having problems unwinding as if it was not wound evenly and was trapped by wire on top of the extracted wire.

4 metre long torch is a bit long for 0.6 wire.

Check the drive rollers ,the rollers for steel wire have knurled grooves and this may be worn or you may have a set for aluminium in there they have smooth grooves ..

I remember using a mig with a long torch lead and had to make sure the lead was as straight as possible between the machine and torch ( not twisted ,curled up or bent aruond the welding bench etc) as this caused no end of trouble.

Ian

I have a boc migmaster unit ( a cebora 130) I was fed up with the wire snagging or not driving smoothly so I bought a euro connector and fitted that to the welder then i can fit a new euro torch easily

My welding supplier sells euro torchs for a bout 30-40 £ and they are european made ones

and it makes it easier to transport the unit to onsite jobs

Having said all that I recently bought a esab buddy tig…mig hardly gets a look in now

Run the wire through the gun and allow it to coil up on the floor the cast or coil should be about twice the spool or reel diameter this would show the correct tension on the feed rollers

Always try removing the tip and blowing the torch backwards with an air line and see how much dust comes out the other end BEFORE spending money. A surprising amount builds up over the years.

You may have bought a torch with a different problem, the neck should not slow the wire down a noticeable amount

I do wish people wouldn't wake up old threads with current advice

CO2 has advantages for some applications, car bodywork and some steel fabrication included, a mix of CO2 and Argon can give reduced spatter and straight Argon is required for most exotic materials, although other gasses are used.
Ideally you should refer to BOC, ESAB and other online guides to the right gasses for a given application.